A Little Too Dirty

Ever since I’d heard about Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture (TDP), I was a little more than excited. Of course the name was attractive but when I Google-d Silk Smitha and got to know about her story, I was thrilled that a movie with such a subject will be made. Then came the promos and the movie had me on the first line of ‘Ooh La La’. The skin show on television was slightly funny but then came the reviews. I mostly relied on The Hindu and the Crest edition of Times Of India and I was mesmerized. I knew I had to watch this movie in a theater.

Very honestly, I was quite disappointed.

I missed the first 10 minutes of the movie – and came to realize later that I wouldn’t have minded very much had I missed whole of the first part. The minute I sat on my seat, I encountered the first heavily punned dialogue. Ignored. As the movie progressed, Vidya’s struggle attracted me. It was impressive to see her dressed like a South Indian but with the boldness of god-knows-where. She looked the enthusiastic, young kid who’d do just about anything to get herself in the industry. Then came her first shot. It was mind blowing, literally. And I still haven’t forgotten the really tacky way in which her tongue moved around. But I ignored that too, thinking that would one just one instance. But what the hell, the first part of the entire movie was filled with the same moves, moans of different pitches and the awkward tongue. She herself had said that this movie doesn’t get vulgar. If you talk about dressing style, well maybe but the moves – downright vulgar. By the intermission, my head was throbbing and I had half a mind to leave the theater right away. But I wasn’t going to waste my money. After the interval, began the story of her downfall. She was definitely affected by the men in her life – Nasseruddin Shah, as ‘Smashing Surya’ and Tushar Kapoor his brother. Love finds her in her biggest hater Emraan Hashmi but he was a little too late. The double standards of these men force her to take an arrogant stand against the world and completely kill her after the face-off of with the newbie Shalaka. Her production venture fails, she has nothing to live for and the last offer she gets is from an adult movie maker. She realizes that Reshma was lost somewhere in Silk’s extremities and commits suicide.

There are no conversations in the movie. Every actor has a set of lines which are double entendres and sound more like dialogue-baazi. Full of innuendos, every line, every move is suggestive. Nasseruddin Shah comes off well as the chauvinist superstar who could make an actress his heroine and his mother at the same time. Tushar Kapoor is the vulnerable male living under the shadow of his brother and has to pay heed to him more than Silk. Emraan Hashmi is the director who hates sleaze but ultimately ends up making a film with a lot of it. As an autobiography, it is probably worth watching but as an independent movie, it pretty much fails. Questions like is this the fate of women who bare all are rendered useless since this movie is primarily based in the 80s. Vidya Balan is a wonderful actress but she overdid it. Her belly was attractive only for the first few minutes and soon became a bag of flesh. Too much cleavage, too much vulgarity makes Vidya fail. The only part where I felt a bit of remorse was when she dies without meeting her mother.

The movie only deserves two stars.

Get A Room

Maintaining The Distance - In Public

Returning from Ansal Plaza the other day, I used the garden path. It’s quick and short though not all that safe. Anyway, things that save time are the best. But one step into the garden and I was reminded why I had been avoiding it since so many days. In every nook and corner and open space, there was this scene: Boy on top of girl, sucking the bloody life out of her or the other way round or both ways round. Now I’m not voyeuristic so I was quick to turn my eyes away from one sight only to be confronted with another. I had to finally keep my eyes glued to the ground in order to avoid such gross and sights (and also lewd remarks from boys who were at the moment deprived of such pleasure). Apart from cursing them, I was yelling three words in my mind: GET A ROOM.

It’s embarrassing. More than you can imagine specially when your mom is around and instead of casually walking, she’ll stare at you expecting you to say something so that she’s reassured that you’ll never do something of that kind. With your friends, well it’s pretty easy to avoid but when you’re alone you just can’t help cursing. I made sure I didn’t use that path again for weeks.

A week later, while I was still brooding about it on Facebook and Twitter, I read an article in the TOI (which invariably highlights such news item with extra ‘masala’) about ‘Operation Majnu’ in Ghaziabad. While such a news item gave me sense of joy that these sights might be done away with, I was also a bit offended when I realized that these ‘moral’ policemen were actually infringing on people’s Right to Personal Life and Liberty (Article 21, Part 4 of the Constitution. Some Political Science knowledge). Now, why exactly should they be doing that? Someone said that Public Display of Affection or PDA is an offence punishable by law. Okay. Agreed. But most of these policemen do it in the name of culture. Forget that, they say they're trying to "save innocent girls from boys with evil motives". That's more of my problem. You can shoo them away from public places, okay. But punishing them- unless they don't listen at all- is beyond my understanding. The girl's parents are there to look after her. They cannot make boys do sit-ups or flog them in public in the name of 'moral duty' towards the girl. And why do the 'moral police' get media with it?

More importantly, how come they are concerned about implementing the law here but not where it is required the most? Go on, punish the law makers who make the law to benefit themselves in some way or the other. Or those who are corrupt to the core or those whose rape cases have been pending in court for years now.

There’s only so much that the police needs to do. They should get over ‘Operation Majnu’ and moral policing the people. Moreover, people should themselves have the sense of what they are doing and where. Can’t get a room? Wait. And if you don’t want to wait, then you don’t deserve the other person. But save yourselves the humiliation. Get a room.

This Door Swings Both Ways

                                                                                                                                                            Cross dresser. When I asked a few people what came to their mind when they hear this word, loud makeup, attention seeker, cheap accessories, fantasy, dual identity, gay were the predominant emotions. In fact, a lot of people believe that cross dressing is a feature of homosexual people in particular. If he’s a cross dresser, he’s gay. So is this all their lives are about? Would no one bother to know what really goes on in their lives? Is that all the recognition they deserve?

 

Source: Google

The answer is no- to all questions. Cross dressers have a life- a great life at times- beyond their clothes. And, as a matter of fact, cross dressers are not gay. They have wives and children like any other normally dressing man. Says Mattie, author of the blog ‘The Girl Inside’ “Less than 10% of cross dressers consider themselves as bisexual or homosexual. The stereotype that cross dressers must be gay, comes from the false assumption that femininity exists to serve masculinity...the vast majority of the time women dress is to look nice for themselves, to feel better about themselves, or to impress each other. Cross dressers are the same; they dress up because it feels nice, not necessarily to attract the attention of men.” We don’t make an effort to know the reality. For many of us, they are a laughing stock while others condemn it as ‘kalyug’ and the rest don’t care.

Cross dressing has been written about and recorded in history. There are instances in Greek, Norse and Hindu mythology while literature, folklore, theatre and music contain a rich history of it. In Hindu Mythology, in Mahabharata, Arjuna crossdressed as Brihannala and became a dance teacher during his term of exile. In Greek Mythology, in punishment for his murder of Iphitus, Heracles/Hercules was given to Omphale as a slave. Many variants of this story say that she not only compelled him to do women's work, but compelled him to dress as a woman whiles her slave.

Cross dressing is not just a male attribute. History has a record of females dressed as fully fledged males. In Norse Mythology, when Hervor (from Hervarar saga) learnt that her father had been the infamous Swedish berserker Angantyr, she dressed as a man, called herself Hjörvard and lived for a long time as a Viking. George Sand is the pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, an early 19th century French novelist who preferred to wear men's clothing exclusively. In her autobiography, she explains in length the various aspects of how she experienced cross-dressing. Dorothy Lawrence was an English war reporter who disguised herself as a man so she could become a soldier in World War I.

Unfortunately, a female dressing as a male has become more or less a fashion statement with entire fashion ranges modeled on the basic structure of male clothes, while males dressing as females are either entertainers or a topic of mockery. A cross dresser has actually started a blog to ‘out’ himself as a cross dresser. He has a wife and child but they don’t know it yet. He thinks doing so through a blog is going to make his wife trust him. But no, that might not happen because she was lied to. That lying comes from the fear of not being accepted. That is how bad the situation is. And everyone’s shouting and advocating feminism.

Another site, in fact a lot of sites, busts various myths about cross dressing. One is surprised to find that our stereotyped thinking is actually wrong. What surprised me was what all could people think! Cross dressing is not only regarded as a feature of homosexuality, myth says it is also a mental disease which cannot be cured! Things like ‘it is a sin’; ‘if my children come in front of one, they too will become so’ are also on the list. A friend quips, “What opinion on cross dressers? I like gaming, you like BlackBerry, someone likes chocolate, some like sports! It’s a lifestyle choice. In fact, why name them at all? Why call them cross dressers? They are people, like any one of us. We should all just get a life and let them live their own!”

A lot of people believe that cross dressing in males comes from the feeling of being an underachiever and they do it to attract attention to themselves. Mattie says, “Nothing could be further from the truth!” About himself he says, “In my case throughout college I was near the top of my class. I was a DJ on a radio station that covered most of a major metropolitan area, served as president of both my high school and college class – and was in the honors society of my area of study. I’ve since attained a Masters degree in my field and again graduated near the top of my class.”

The society has assigned clothes to a specific gender; clothes haven’t been made like that. No body’s making fun of femininity by dressing up like a woman- except comedians who intend it to be a part of their act. It is a beautiful act, not at the materialistic level but at an emotional level. All that the cross dressers are trying to do is expressing their love for femininity. That doesn’t make them retards or sinners. This attitude leads to severe depression among them which might be dangerous to the people around them or fatal to themselves.

Cross dressing is more than just fashion and loud makeup. If one does it, it is to make one feel good about oneself. Cross dressing is as legal and as much a fundamental right as is right to life and personal liberty. Accept them, include them and let them live like any other person.